Sri Lanka in 1993

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Pres. Ranasinghe Premadasa (seeOBITUARIES) was assassinated on May 1, 1993, by a suspected Tamil separatist suicide bomber who rode a bicycle into the president as he watched a May Day parade in Colombo. Premadasa had made relentless efforts to stem the bloodshed in Sri Lanka caused by secessionist insurrections. On May 7 Parliament unanimously elected Prime Minister Dingiri Banda Wijetunga, an ally of Premadasa, president; Wijetunga then appointed Ranil Wickremasinghe prime minister.

After his election President Wijetunga made fresh peace overtures to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the major separatist group battling for an independent Tamil homeland in the north and east of the nation, but little progress was made. Tamils, who formed 18% of Sri Lanka’s 17.6 million population, claimed they were discriminated against by the majority Sinhalese, who controlled the government, the military, and a vast majority of the nation’s businesses.

A 45-member parliamentary committee appointed to find a solution to the decade-old ethnic conflict recommended two separate councils for the north and east and a quasi-federal system to meet the rebel demand for an independent homeland. The rebels rejected the offer, and in late September 9,000 government troops mounted a major offensive against them. A Tamil rebel sea base in Kilali on the Jaffna Peninsula was captured on October 1, and the government troops destroyed 120 boats. The capture of Kilali was a major setback for the rebels, who had used it as a base from which to reach the mainland. At least 114 government soldiers and 200 rebels were killed in the offensive, the largest in two years. Despite the loss of Kilali, most of the Jaffna Peninsula remained under the control of Tamil rebels.

The Sri Lankan army on August 23 opened 21 centres to induct more than 10,000 soldiers to fight the Tamil rebels. To expand the army by 10 infantry battalions, the government lowered its recruitment standards. The new soldiers would reinforce the 42 battalions deployed mainly against Tamil rebels. By late 1993 Sri Lanka’s mainly Sinhalese army had lost more than 4,250 soldiers, including those killed during a Tamil attack on a military base in mid-November.

On August 17 Haniffa Mohamed, the speaker of the Parliament, named an 18-member parliamentary committee to look into constitutional reforms. Sri Lanka’s present constitution, adopted in 1978, had long been criticized by the opposition, who said that it gave too much power to the president and too little to Parliament. The committee would have to submit proposals well ahead of the next presidential elections, scheduled for December 1994. Dilip Ganguly

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June 23, 1924 Colombo, Ceylon [now Sri Lanka] May 1, 1993 Colombo Sri Lankan politician who was at the centre of the Sri Lankan government for more than 25 years as leader of the national state assembly (1977-88), prime minister (1978-88), and president (1989-93). Premadasa, a Sinhalese born into...